LSU baseball snags series from new SEC rival A&M

Updated 12:54 am, Sunday, May 12, 2013

COLLEGE STATION — In 31 years of coaching, LSU's Paul Mainieri has visited nearly every one of college baseball's hallowed grounds. He can finally scratch Texas A&M's Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park off his list.

“This has fast become one of my favorite places in the whole country,” Mainieri said on Saturday. “I love the Aggie War Hymn, the way they sway in the stands and the tradition and the history.”

The LSU-A&M series' outcome, too, helped fuel Mainieri's good tidings, after the third-ranked Tigers rallied to take the final two games against the Aggies, including 2-1 in Saturday's finale. A&M (27-24, 11-15 SEC) and LSU (45-7, 21-6) also concluded Friday's weather-delayed contest on Saturday morning, a 7-4 Tigers victory.

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A&M, fighting for its NCAA tournament life in its first season in the Southeastern Conference, defeated LSU 2-1 in Thursday's series opener behind a strong outing from starter Daniel Mengden.

“We put ourselves in position to win all three games; it just didn't happen,” A&M coach Rob Childress said. “We went toe-to-toe with (LSU) and played at a high level all weekend. The disappointing thing is we didn't win the series.”

A series victory over one of the nation's top teams would've boosted the Aggies' argument for an NCAA postseason berth, and they were especially frustrated when a couple of base-running miscues — including when Brandon Wood failed stealing third with two outs in the fourth — cost them a shot at winning the finale.

A&M, which swept Missouri last weekend at Olsen to halt an SEC skid, will play at Tennessee this coming weekend, and likely must earn a sweep to continue making a case for the NCAA tournament.

Mainieri's Tigers, meanwhile, continue rolling along, and a healthy chunk of the crowd this weekend was dressed in purple and gold, soaking in the budding SEC rivalry in Aggieland.

“Houston has the second-largest population of LSU grads in the country next to Baton Rouge, even more so than New Orleans,” Mainieri said. “So I'm sure coming to Texas gave a lot of our fans and former students a chance to come see us. And if you didn't enjoy that last game from both teams' standpoint, then you're not really a fan of college baseball.”